Men in black t-shirts and skater shoes claiming to be law enforcement on Tuesday hustled a man out of an East San Jose nonprofit employment center, handcuffed him and drove off in an unmarked SUV.

Santa Clara County’s Rapid Response Network later confirmed the men in black were ICE agents. They were not wearing masks, a trademark of ICE agents in other cities that's now the basis of a legal confrontation between California and the federal government.

Workers said the SUV had been outside the center since 6am.

After the doors opened at 9am, the men in black t-shirts came in through the back and front saying they were police. Workers said the three men showed no ID and produced no warrants, but they did have a deportation order for the man who was taken into custody.

The surprise morning incident is sending shockwaves throughout the city’s undocumented immigrant community and their supporters who see the incident as an attack on a sacred cultural space serving more than just the Latino community.

San Jose Inside reached out to ICE for comment, but the agency did not respond.

ConXión to Community President and CEO Rose Amador had celebrated her retirement party just days before she described receiving a gut punch like no other — a man hauled off by federal immigration officers at her decades-long place of employment.

“They did see what we have here — and they might come back,” Amador said in an interview. “San Jose is a sanctuary city and this has always been a safe place for our clients. We want to keep it that way.”

She spent Tuesday afternoon phoning friends, calling in favors and twisting arms to quickly organize a united response to the unprecedented arrest.

Security camera footage from ConXión to Community's Story Road site viewed by San Jose Inside show a man walking within the “Day Worker Center” among at least 12 other people at 9:17am. A plainclothed man walks through the open entrance and grabs the worker before pulling handcuffs out of his jeans to detain the unknown man.

The nonprofit’s workers say the men who executed the arrest had verbally identified themselves as “police” — but failed to produce any physical identification before driving away with the detainee to an unknown destination.

The atmosphere was tense as the remaining day laborers quietly crowded the doorway to watch the commotion before scurrying back upon realizing it was an immigration enforcement operation.

The Santa Clara County Rapid Response Network is keeping the identity of the detained man confidential to protect his family's privacy.

Sequestered to the back of the building, Amador and her confidants met with community leaders like Sean Allen of the NAACP Silicon Valley branch to drum up support.

Though an isolated arrest, according to nonprofit immigrant community advocates familiar with the case, those working day-to-day with the community fear what it means for ICE to now be aware of a once-safe space.

The man who was detained was a client of ConXión who was receiving support from the nonprofit for employment opportunities.

Staff members were confronted by men claiming to be law enforcement who asked about the client before one of the men recognized the client as an individual with detention orders — thus a self-identified law enforcement officer pushed him out of the building into custody.

“The city can support us by helping with security,” Amador said.

“We live day-to-day as a nonprofit, of course we’ve been cut back a lot and we don’t have the funds to secure the place the way it should be. There’s other nonprofit organizations using this building. We want to continue providing our services.”

Footage from an outside security camera reviewed by San Jose Inside shows multiple men taking the detained man to the back of an SUV before driving off. Staff members said the vehicle was stationed outside the day worker center since around 6 a.m. Tuesday.

“I don’t understand why they were out there so early, we aren’t even open at 6am,” ConXión to Community Vice President & COO Lori Chavez said. “There’s just a lot of questions.”

East San Jose Councilmember Peter Ortiz, who recently introduced a resolution mandating federal law enforcement to identify themselves, said he’s organizing a news conference for Wednesday with the city’s undocumented community advocates to criticize the recent ICE detention.

“The use of plain-clothed officers, particularly when they misidentify themselves as local police, erodes trust in public institutions and spreads fear through our neighborhoods,” Ortiz said Tuesday. “No resident should have to live in fear of being abducted in our city.”

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